Thanks for the info on the mast, Dolly! We've been looking for something like that. Do you know how stiff it is? Can it handle a bit of wind?

We pick up our trailer in early January, so we haven't tried using the mast yet. I got the idea form someone else on this forum (Mike Lewis). I asked him a few questions about his experience with the mast. The mast comes with guy wires, so I was curious if Mike ever needed to use them. Here's his response:

Quote:

I don't use the guy wires, and most of the time I leave the mast fully extended when I'm in/around the trailer. Sometimes when camped and I leave the campground I'll retract the mast a section or two, just in case a wind comes up. I'm reluctant to leave it fully extended if I'm not around. So there are drawbacks to having an antenna mounted this way. I fully retract the mast when traveling, of course, and disconnect and roll up the feed lines.

Here's other info he provided that might be useful to you:

Quote:

I secured my antenna mast to the square vertical tube that holds the spare tire. I used stainless steel U-bolts and hose clamps, intending to do something more permanent later (but I haven't yet). I considered having a welding shop put a holding tube at the end of the bumper, in order to get the mast out of the rear window field of view.

When I am parked I run my antenna cables through the opening for the trailer's power cord. When I travel I disconnect the cables, roll them up, and secure them to the mast. I have short cables inside the trailer that reach just into the hatch for the power cable, and have my connections there.

I'll report back once we have had direct experience with the mast, but that won't be until January or February, at the earliest.

Doing mods to get ready for spring and summer camping! Discovered an old linksys 54G router in a junk box over the weekend and successfully flashed it with the dd-wrt firmware.

Spent some time looking for antennas today. Found a nice one made by L-com on Amazon and went to their website to find the same one on sale for over 50% off. If anyone else is looking for a high gain wifi antenna this is a good deal folks!

Doing mods to get ready for spring and summer camping! Discovered an old linksys 54G router in a junk box over the weekend and successfully flashed it with the dd-wrt firmware.

Spent some time looking for antennas today. Found a nice one made by L-com on Amazon and went to their website to find the same one on sale for over 50% off. If anyone else is looking for a high gain wifi antenna this is a good deal folks!

That is still one of the best routers ever made Sean. It was also the first one I ever flashed with DD-WRT. Still works.

Tell me, how are you going to rig it up in the trailer?

Well, I'm pretty good with tech but not so much with networking. I could probably use some help.

I plan to use it as a client bridge when I'm at a campground or near retail stores that offer free wifi. I bought an omni antenna (linked above) and will mount it to the top of the trailer, which will connect to the router and transmitting antenna inside. Haven't quite figured out how I'm going to run the coax or where I'm going to put the router. Does there need to be a good amount of separation between the antennas?

I plan to use it as a client bridge when I'm at a campground or near retail stores that offer free wifi.

I'm not sure if you can use a dd-wrt flashed router as both an Ethernet bridge and as an access point. It may be possible; is that what the "client bridge" option is for?

I have the following setup at home: I have a wifi hotspot in my truck, it's on all the time and parked in front of my house. In a front window I have an antenna leading to a Linksys router flashed as an Ethernet bridge. This puts the signal on an Ethernet network in my house, with another router flashed as a wifi access point on the network. This works okay.

I'd like to do something similar in my trailer so I can keep the hotspot in my truck as long as the cellular data signal is good, then pick up the wifi signal in my trailer and retransmit it. But I'm not sure if one router will do this, or if so how to configure it. Someone please enlighten me.

Well, I'm pretty good with tech but not so much with networking. I could probably use some help.

I plan to use it as a client bridge when I'm at a campground or near retail stores that offer free wifi. I bought an omni antenna (linked above) and will mount it to the top of the trailer, which will connect to the router and transmitting antenna inside. Haven't quite figured out how I'm going to run the coax or where I'm going to put the router. Does there need to be a good amount of separation between the antennas?

Ok, I see what you're doing.

Yes, you can bridge it. It's basically just working as a repeater and LAN. As far as separation between the roof mounted antenna and the router antenna, I'd say a few feet will suffice to avoid attenuation.

Using it as a bridge only fits certain scenarios of course. Alot depends on the gain of the antenna, particularly when you're far from the source. You might get better reception with something like a Pep Wave and a high gain external antenna. Then, you could connect the router to the WAN port and have your own nice little private network.

I like creating a wifi network where there is none, so of course I went a different direction with the wilson antenna, MiFi hotspot and sleek cradle. Campground WiFi is notoriously unreliable and slow.

__________________
"You can't buy happiness, but you can buy an RV. And that is pretty close."

I'm not sure if you can use a dd-wrt flashed router as both an Ethernet bridge and as an access point. It may be possible; is that what the "client bridge" option is for?

I have the following setup at home: I have a wifi hotspot in my truck, it's on all the time and parked in front of my house. In a front window I have an antenna leading to a Linksys router flashed as an Ethernet bridge. This puts the signal on an Ethernet network in my house, with another router flashed as a wifi access point on the network. This works okay.

I'd like to do something similar in my trailer so I can keep the hotspot in my truck as long as the cellular data signal is good, then pick up the wifi signal in my trailer and retransmit it. But I'm not sure if one router will do this, or if so how to configure it. Someone please enlighten me.

Images sure do help a lot. Found this on the dd-wrt website. Technically its called a Repeater Bridge, which wirelessly connects the secondary (trailer) router to the primary (internet) router. Devices can have both wired and wireless connections to the secondary router. I haven't had a chance to play with the dd-wrt settings, but would it not be possible to create a private network with this setup?

Yes, you can bridge it. It's basically just working as a repeater and LAN. As far as separation between the roof mounted antenna and the router antenna, I'd say a few feet will suffice to avoid attenuation.

Using it as a bridge only fits certain scenarios of course. Alot depends on the gain of the antenna, particularly when you're far from the source. You might get better reception with something like a Pep Wave and a high gain external antenna. Then, you could connect the router to the WAN port and have your own nice little private network.

I like creating a wifi network where there is none, so of course I went a different direction with the wilson antenna, MiFi hotspot and sleek cradle. Campground WiFi is notoriously unreliable and slow.

Thanks Robert. I plan on doing both. I also snagged a WeBoost Drive 4G-M off eBay for $150. Problem is I don't have a great data plan to begin with, so I would like to piggy back off an available signal if I can. Endless possibilities, and unfortunately none of them guarantee an endless data source.